Ten Easy Fermented Vegetable Recipes for Beginners (2024)

FAQs

What is the easiest vegetable to ferment? ›

Cabbage is a relatively inexpensive and easy vegetable to ferment, and there are many options for creating flavors you might like. Experiment with herbs and spices such as ginger, garlic, hot pepper, caraway seeds, curry powder, and turmeric.

Cabbage, salt and caraway seeds; sauerkraut is one of the easiest fermented foods to make. Basically you pack all the ingredients into a clean jar and ferment for 3 to 10 days. Since it's a fermented food, it will then keep for several months. Check out this basic sauerkraut recipe to get started.

Vegetables are possibly the easiest and quickest fermentation: cut the vegetables, place in glass jars and submerge completely in the brine for 1-2 days until fermented (you'll know it's ready once the ferment has developed a ˜tangy' taste). Then, keep the jar in cold storage.

What foods are fermented? Some of the most widely available include kombucha, yogurt, aged/raw cheeses, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, tempeh, natto and kimchi. Other healthy foods that are fermented include apple cider vinegar, wine, sourdough bread, cottage cheese and coconut kefir.

“There's no vegetable you can't ferment,” he said, but added that leafy greens such as kale — because of their chlorophyll content — aren't to most people's liking. During an NPR interview, Katz explained that pickling and fermentation are not the same, although they are “overlapping” categories.

In alphabetical order, the best vegetables for fermenting include cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, garlic, kohlrabi, peppers, radishes, snap beans and turnips.

Do you peel carrots before fermenting? ›

I invite you to try them all and explore how unique the resulting ferments can be. General note: I tend to scrub my carrots and use them with the peel on. However, when carrot skin is dark and rough, it can also be bitter. If this is the case, peel your carrots first.

Lacto-Fermentation Methods

The first (the 'brining method') is to make a brine with water and salt and submerge the veggies in it. The second (the 'dry-salting method') involves salting the veggies and letting the salt bring out all the juices to create a brine, then submerge the veggies in their own salty juices.

The foods that give your body beneficial probiotics are those fermented using natural processes and containing probiotics. Live cultures are found in not only yogurt and a yogurt-like drink called kefir, but also in Korean pickled vegetables called kimchi, sauerkraut, and in some pickles.

The first (the 'brining method') is to make a brine with water and salt and submerge the veggies in it. The second (the 'dry-salting method') involves salting the veggies and letting the salt bring out all the juices to create a brine, then submerge the veggies in their own salty juices.

Vegetables such as cabbage, beetroot, radish, turnip and carrots are some of the easiest foods to ferment at home, as the bacteria living on the surface does the fermenting for you.

How long do you ferment vegetables? The lacto-fermentation process takes around 5 days at room temperature. After this time, the fermentation process slows down but is still occurring, and the vegetables will start to take on some more of those 'funkier' flavours.